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For some reason Windows 10 updates seem to always happen at an extremely slow speed. I have several computers and this seems to be the case on all of them. When I look at task manager all graphs are low and there seems to be no obvious bottleneck. It's as if there was some sort of artificial limit/throttling that limits the speed at which the updates happen. Is there a way to control the limit? Alternatively is there a way to trick Windows to raising the limit? Would locking the screen trick Windows to use more power on applying the updates? Do the updates get applied faster or slower if I have the Windows Update window open?

cyberixae
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    It is most likely due to Microsoft's servers. – Brian Feb 23 '22 at 20:22
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    regardless of any local usage metric, you are only going to get data at the speed the server can/will send it to you. is all the time being spent downloading the updates, or installing them? – Frank Thomas Feb 23 '22 at 20:33
  • Servers have been working fine here for the few 10/11 updates – John Feb 23 '22 at 20:45
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    Windows updates need up to 8 hours to reliably install, says Microsoft, https://www.tomsguide.com/news/windows-updates-need-up-to-8-hours-to-reliably-install-says-microsoft . This is unfortunate. Since Ubuntu has updates almost daily, they rarely take more than 10 minute, but even skipping them for a month and then updating rarely goes more than a half hour. Perhaps MS can learn from Debian's package management? – DrMoishe Pippik Feb 23 '22 at 22:43
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    @DrMoishePippik - Nobody is sure what Microsoft means by that statement. I have fully patched a 1507 system to 21H2 within 2 hours. 90% of that time was installing the feature update. Devices connected to inTune is an entirely different beast… – Ramhound Feb 24 '22 at 01:53
  • @Ramhound, agreed, some updates, e.g., for Defender, don't even require reboot, and can be completed in a few minutes... and some take a great deal longer, depending on the KB item, the PC's power, and how busy MS download servers are at that time. For some major updates, I sometimes find it faster and easier to download the latest Windows ISO and perform reinstall, keeping files. However, that quoted time is from MS. – DrMoishe Pippik Feb 24 '22 at 21:04
  • @DrMoishePippik - What they didn't say is if that was 8 continuous hours or not. Apple nor anyone within the Linux community has released any similar metrics that compare their own solutions. A Windows system might take 8 hours to patch itself but I can push an update to my own system within 5 minutes just like I can request the update on my Ubuntu system and my Apple iPhone when a new version of iOS is released. I was able to update to Windows 11 22H2, 24 hours before it was released, something I wouldn't have been able to do with iOS (outside a developer build). – Ramhound Feb 24 '22 at 21:23
  • This phenomenon is hauting me - and I am not talking slowER - just the normal slow is a mystery. Systems are nearly idling and readily downloaded updates take ages to install. Why!? Does anyone know a way to speed this up? – Max Dec 11 '23 at 10:16

2 Answers2

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I have several computers and this seems to be the case on all of them.

Is Settings, Windows Updates, Delivery Optimization ON; and is one or more computer slow (slow network, slow computer)? If the slow computer is on Delivery Optimization, this might slow things down.

Try turning Delivery Optimization OFF on a couple of machines and test update speed.

John
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There can be many reasons for Windows Update to be slow:

  • Slow network
  • Slow disk
  • Weak CPU
  • Updating on peak-traffic hours when the network is saturated
  • Third-party antivirus.

If none of the above seems to apply to your case, and if your computers are in a domain, and if you have the required technical experience, you could set up a local server for Windows Update. This would use either Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or the newer Windows Update for Business (WUfB). This would also give you better control of the updates as they arrive.

For more information, see:

harrymc
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  • No. Windows update take long to install even on powerful systems. It seems like MS is slowing them down intentionally as not to consume too much cpu time or memory or IDK. And WUfB does help you to manage the Updates over several machines and have it doen (semi)automatically - yet this doesn't help once you install a new machine that needlessly makes you wait forever till the updates complete. – Max Dec 11 '23 at 10:22
  • @Max: Nothing one can do to improve the time take by the Microsoft servers. If interested, see this answer which although for Windows 7 explains the complexity of the process. – harrymc Dec 11 '23 at 10:55
  • It is not the download - it's the install time that is irritating to me. – Max Mar 19 '24 at 08:52